Interview: Kanye East Talks 'Fortnite Balls,' DMX Stealing His Beats, And His Upcoming Mixtape 'Dianne'

n the span of a year, Mike Manik, better known online as Kanye East for his uncanny resemblance in both appearance and voice to Kanye West, has amassed a huge following across social media. On TikTok, his largest platform, East posts a wide variety of content, including reactions, commentary, and most notably, videos rapping in the style of West. His Rap Your Comments series, where he raps livestream comments as they come in, has spawned a number of viral videos, most notably "Fornite Balls," with millions of views across multiple platforms.

We recently spoke with East to learn more about how he got started rapping, his rise to fame on TikTok, and what it's like being the next best thing to Kanye West.

Q: What inspired you to start Kanye East? When did you first start posting to TikTok?

A: So when I first started TikTok, it was not as Kanye East. I did not want to be Kanye East. Actually, it was going to be Kanye North. When I was in high school people called me Kanye all the time. Constantly. And I hated it. No one called me Mike, my real name, and I hated it. So, when I initially started TikTok I thought about it and I said, "No, you know, I'm going to just try to be me," and as I started doing videos on TikTok, more people would just say, "Kanye? Kanye, is that you? Kanye, is that you?" So you know what? I was like, "Just forget it." I just started doing videos as Kanye.

Initially, it didn't blow up. I got a few responses, but the thing that really blew up was when I did Kanye Questions: Who's In Paris? That's when it blew up, and that's when Kanye East became a thing. Like, I officially changed my name to Kanye East and I just started officially doing Kanye East-related content and all of that stuff, man.

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Q: Why were you so against the Kanye comparisons in the past?

A: Imagine wanting to have someone just call you your name instead of being called someone you're not. Like, at first it was fun, and then after a while, it became annoying. You just really want people to call you by your name. But I've grown to just accept it and love it. I'm Kanye East.

Q: Your main series on TikTok is Rap Your Comments; how did you start doing that and when did it start blowing up?

A: That was actually a progression, too. Rap Your Comments kind of started by fluke. I started doing Karaoke Kanye. So, I would get on Live and I would just do people's favorite Kanye songs. You know, I've learned a lot of Kanye songs by heart. I would just karaoke them. I kind of sound like him, so it's really dope. From there people were like, "can you rap other things? Can you rap your own original things?" And I was like, "Yeah, sure," and then I remember one person came to me and he was like, "Can you try to rap people's comments?" And you know, why not? Let's just try. And then it happened to just be really dope.

Everyone enjoyed it, and I saw my lives jump up from like, 100 people, to 500 people, and I said, "Okay, this is working, so maybe I should just stick with this. And so that's what I've been doing since, man, and now I see like, 3,000 people in my room at a time. It started off with an idea, man, just a fluke. It wasn't even thought of.

Q: Are you a Kanye fan then? Have you always been a Kanye fan?

A: At first I didn't know who he was, so I had to actually look him up. The first song I heard by him was "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" off the Late Registration album. So, Late Registration was the first album I actually listened to, and I became a fan. Like, I really loved the music. Even from a young age I really loved music, so I mean, when you hear Kanye's composition you're gonna fall in love. He's a musical genius. He's just talented, man. He's very talented.

Q: The things people want you to say in Rap Your Comments can get pretty dicey at times, and I see you get banned a lot, too; Is there ever anything that goes too far, that you won't do? What are your general rules for Rap Your Comments?

A: So, I'm going to tell you my biggest regret on Rap Your Comments. My biggest regret is the line that went viral that said that I killed George Floyd. That is my biggest, biggest, biggest regret out of all my Rap Your Comments, man. I try not to say anything like that anymore. People have tried to get me to say some racial slurs. Like, [people are] crazy about some things, man. So I get banned. Most of the things I get banned for, you know, I don't even know what I said. It's not like they tell you, it's just a general, "oh, that was controversial," so I really can't pinpoint what. But I know keywords now. There are keywords that I cannot say, and I know them because I tried it and I get immediately banned, so it's a process. I'm figuring out what I can and what I can't say.

Q: Yeah, I'm always surprised when I go on your lives that TikTok lets you do it sometimes.

A: I think TikTok lets me do it because it's Rap Your Comments and I'm not endorsing anything, it's just whatever's coming up on the screen. So I think that's why TikTok lets it slide. But they're not giving me my blue checkmark, though. I've accepted that I'm never going to get that blue checkmark. My content is just too controversial. I'm okay with that.

Q: Have you thought about branching out from TikTok? Are you anywhere other than TikTok?

A: I'm on Spotify. I have a song called "Fortnite Ballz," it has over 300,000 streams so far. I have another song that's coming out called "Sussy Sussy," which should be on the way soon. I have a YouTube channel, Kanye East. I have several Kanye parody songs on there. Twitter, Instagram, Cameo. I do Cameos, you know, if you want to roast your friend, send them a rap, any words of encouragement, I'm on there too. Kanye East. I have over 1,000 cameos, I have a 5-star rating, I have not had one bad review yet, everybody loves it, so.

Q: Can you tell me about "Fortnite Balls?" Did you know what that meant when you were rapping it?

A: I had no idea what Fornite Balls even was, bro. It was a random comment by a random person. I don't remember the person that first originally put it in my box, but I wish I did because I owe that man a lot. I put on my TikTok already, if you were the person who originally sent Fortnite Balls and you can prove it, and you can prove it, I will follow you. No one's been able to prove it yet but I know he's out there on TikTok somewhere.

Q: You have a rap career outside of Kanye East; do you hope to branch out of Kanye East into Mike Manik at any point? Where is the line between East and Manik?

A: Right now I'm kind of gauging my audience. I know that my audience, they like the Kanye East style of rap. Whenever I try to post anything serious, I don't know, it doesn't get as far as the Kanye East stuff. So I think right now Mike Manik is kind of on the back burner for me right now. I'm going to do some funny rap things. I'm actually on my way to Florida after I'm done talking to you. I'm getting myself prepared and I'm going to a studio. You're going to see on my TikTok I'm going to show the studio, all of that. I'm going to be creating some songs that'll be coming out soon, music videos as well, so I mean, stay tuned.

Q: Are you thinking an album?

A: Yeah, yeah. So we're going to make an 8-track little mixtape. You know how Kanye was supposed to do Donda? He never dropped it, so Kanye East is going to drop Donda, but it's not going to be called Donda, it's going to be called Dianne. Dianne is my mother's name so it's going to be called Dianne. And it's really fun for me, bro. Like, I'm really going to enjoy this. This is my first time actually putting music out. I've been doing music for years but I've never put it out, you know?

It's always been a fun hobby or something that's a secret passion, and I never thought that I would get the opportunity to even attempt to do what I'm doing now, but it's just amazing what TikTok has done. It's an amazing platform. I keep telling people it's the new YouTube. I really believe that it's the new YouTube, and you're going to start seeing a whole lot of brand new stars blossoming out of that app, man. So stay tuned, a lot of good things are coming from Kanye East soon.

A lot of people downplay [TikTok], and until I tell them what I do, they're like, "Oh man, what do you do?" and I tell them that I'm an influencer on TikTok, and what I'm making, and they just can't believe it, you know? Like, "Off of TikTok, the dancing app?" They think it's a dancing app. Y'all don't realize it's not just a dancing app anymore. Maybe it started that way, but it's not that anymore.

It's geared for you, and it's perfect for creators because it helps you find your audience. And that was something that was hard to do any other time, you know? You couldn't key and pinpoint your audience. And TikTok gives you that ability. So I really don't understand how people are not utilizing this service while you can, you know, before regulations come in and ruin it. Because that's what's happening now. Everything is getting stricter, everything is getting tighter, you can't do certain things anymore.

Q: So have you ever seen the other Kanye East meme?

A: Kanye East in Egypt, right? Yeah, man. So, when I first did Kanye East, right, I said it was going to be Kanye North, but I just felt like Kanye East had a better ring to it. Plus I'm on the east coast, so I just felt like Kanye East from the east coast just sounded good. So when I looked it up to see if anybody had any copyrights or anything on it, his picture came up and I was interested, because he really did look like Kanye. So you know, I found out about him. He's a dude from Egypt, and it's really cool, man. But he didn't rap, so I kind of figured I could take that. I even told my girlfriend one time, that I could take that meme, and I wanted to become that meme. And it happened.

I was like, if I'm going to be Kanye East, then I'm going to be the Kanye. Like, if I gotta be Kanye, and everybody's going to call me Kanye, then I might as well just be Kanye. And it helps that I know how to rap, too. I think that's the X-factor. The meme in itself is cool, but you have a Kanye that can actually rap, too, and I produce my own music too, I produce my own beats as well, so I'm like an actual kind of fake Kanye.

Q: So how long have you been rapping and producing music?

A: I've been writing music since I was a kid, man. That's something that's just been instilled in me. I actually had a very religious [upbringing] when I was younger. I couldn't have any friends, I couldn't go anywhere, everything was evil, so I had to stay in the house a lot. And music was my escape. I would just sit in bed for hours listening to music, put my headphones on, and you know, just go into a different world, and you know, it just became natural. But the best thing, that was something totally different. At the age of 23, I left my mom's house. My uncle came from New York to come and whisk me away because my mom was just too overbearing, and he took me to New York, and he died on me within a couple of months of me being there.

Instead of coming back to my mom, I stayed in New York. I was very underdeveloped, I didn't know a lot about the world because my mom never taught me anything, so I keep telling people that I was born seven years ago. I was actually born seven years ago because I didn't know anything about the world. I was naive as hell. If it wasn't for the people in New York helping me I wouldn't have learned about, you know, how to even survive. But long story short, through a program where they wanted to help me make friends because I was socially awkward, so they put me on something called Craigslist. I don't know if you know what Craigslists is, but old website. So they put personals up for me on Craigslist and somebody answered, and it just so happened to be a girl. We corresponded for a little while and we found out that we had a lot in common so I went to go meet her.

So we meet, we have a conversation, and she tells me that she's DMX's sister. Now, when someone tells you something like that, the first thing that you think is, "you're lying." There's no way. But she was nice, and I really liked her, so I just wanted to, like, forget that, because maybe she just wanted to do that to impress me. All the other stuff was cool, that one red flag I was just going to let go. So the next time we hung out she got a phone call on the phone and it was someone telling her to come to a bodega, and she was like, "Do you want to come meet Earl with me?" I didn't know who Earl was. I didn't know his name was Earl Simmons. So, I'm like, "Fine," we go to the bodega, and it's DMX. It's deadass DMX, and I'm just floored.

From that moment it was just a whirlwind. Like, I got to meet different people. I got to meet Dame Grease, who was DMX's producer for his first couple of albums. He had a protege, a dude that he was teaching to make beats, his name was NIAMSON, he's a dope artist. But he taught me how to make beats. Like, I would hang out with him and he would teach me Fruity Loops, and he really taught me how to do it, and from that moment on I was making beats. I actually made a couple of beats for DMX. Well, actually they stole some of my beats, and they would pay me like, $100, $200, $300 for the beats but make millions off the beats.

Q: DMX stole your beats?

A: Yeah, I didn't know anything because I was naive, so yeah. That's why I left New York and I'm back here in South Carolina. Because of that whole thing, I didn't know I was being used and all of that, and it really hurt my feelings. I thought these people were my friends, but they ended up stabbing me in the back and really using me. So I just left that whole thing behind. I was prepared to leave music behind. I wasn't supposed to come back here. I went to go become a manager. I became a manager, I managed a whole bunch of restaurants, I became very successful, very high-valued manager, made a lot of money doing that, but music kept calling. TikTok was there, I just tried TikTok out, just wanted to play around, and music is always there. It's just destiny I guess. It's just destiny.

Q: That's crazy they were just ripping you off like that.

A: Man, it happens in the music industry all the time I hear, man. But I just fault myself. It's just me being naive. They knew that I didn't know a lot about the world, too. They just knew that I was talented. They saw my talent and they just used it. But that's all right, though. I'm standing on my own two right now, because one of the things they told me when I left, and this is always going to stay with me, is that, "you're going to go back to being a nothing, you're going to go back to being a nobody." They kept telling me that. "You're not going to make this kind of money," you know. And it's just very funny with the success that I'm getting right now, and I hope that they see it one day. You know, I mean, X is gone now, you know, he's passed away, but there are other people that are in his camp that I would like to see that happen.

Q: Is there any one specific beat or anything that still makes you angry, or it's all good? You're moving on?

A: Okay, so DMX was like, in the twilight of his career. I mean that was a couple of years ago, so it's not like they made a lot of money, but there was one beat in particular that I really liked. If you go look it up on YouTube, it's going to be credited under Dame Grease. It's DMX "Fire" featuring Cashmere, which is the girl that I was talking to. That beat. I really like that beat, and there's nothing that I could do. You know, not even credited at all, no way to prove anything because they own all of the files and stuff was in their computer that they used, no way to prove. Only my word, and my word ain't really nothing just like her word wasn't when she said that she knew DMX. It's the same thing, bro. People ain't never gonna believe, but I can still show you my talent. So I let my talent speak for itself.

Q: How fast has your come-up been?

A: I've been on TikTok for almost a year now, and the first things I was doing was anime and video games because that's what I really enjoy. I'm a big nerd, bro. But that didn't blow up, man. It just didn't hit. Kanye just hit, bro. At first, I had a little paper bag that I was rapping with, his name was Paper the Bag. I actually posted recently a music video that I did for him, "Butterfinger," and it got a little views, 100,000, but I thought I'd bring that back because it was kind of old school, that was what I was originally doing, you know? But it didn't work out, man. They call him Black Spongebob now, by the way. I'm thinking about changing it to Black SpongeBob and seeing what happens.

Q: Just looking through your TikTok, I see these videos of you reacting to these ball snipping videos. What's with the ball snipping and phallic object reactions? Those seem to do well for you.

A: Yo I found that randomly. I'm scrolling through my TikTok feed, man, and I'm scrolling, and that comes up and I'm just like, "Oh my god, I gotta duet this video."

Q: That video kind of blew up, right?

A: Yeah, it did. Almost 500,000 so far, now. It's crazy, man. See, I did two chopping-up ball videos now, though. The first one I did, the chopping ball video, now that got millions. The one where he's doing it with the meat cutter and he's cutting it into slices. Yeah, that one went millions. That one is still getting views now, and I did that a while ago. But I did a second ball cut video where they cut it from I think it's like, pig testicles, and they're cutting them, now that one's got like 500,000 views. I just find these videos randomly.

Q: You never know what's going to blow up on TikTok.

A: Yeah bro, it's crazy. You know, it's frustrating though, you put your heart and your soul into one video though, like you spend all your time in one video, and that video doesn't get watched, right? But you literally spend like three seconds bullshitting, and that video blows up.

Q: So, what's next for Kanye East, and where do you see this all going in the near future?

A: I'm really hoping that I can break away from the meme at some point and just, you know, be Mike Manik. But Kanye East, man, Kanye East is here for a while. I think I'm going to continue to do videos, I'm going to continue to do funny songs, you know, maybe try and do some skits. I actually have Mr. Bruno following me, we're mutuals now, so I'm trying to talk to him to see if I can travel out to where he is to actually do a song with him, and a vid with him. I'm going to try to branch out, meet different TikTokers.

I'm in talks with MrBlockU, I'm in talks with Inky, I'm going to try to travel to them and get them to do a video. Inky is kind of hard because he says that he's a real gangster guy. I don't think he's going to do those types of videos. I mean, he's cool, if you can get him to talk to you he's cool, but I just don't think he's the type of dude to do a comedy video like that. He says all he does is play Fortnite. He says, "Man, I just sit on my couch with my controller and I play Fortnite, I don't do." I don't think I'm going to get a skit out of him.

But Mr. Bruno seems to be down for a skit, so you might see a Kanye East Mr. Bruno skit, you might see a Kanye East MrBlockU skit, so things are going to be cool on TikTok. Maybe I can get another one like ACG Andy. They're like, in the realm of Kanye, they like Kanye content and all that stuff, and I'm trying to branch out and expand the fanbase a little bit above people who just want to see the memes. Because we have to weed out who's just here to see those memes because those memes ain't going to last forever. I need to find something else, you know.

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Kanye East, aka Mike Manik, is a TikToker, comedian, and rapper known for his song "Fortnite Ballz," his comedy videos, and his Rap Your Comments series. To keep up with Kanye East, you can follow him on TikTok, Instagram, or order a personal video from him on Cameo.